How do you import non-node.js files?

Question

How do I load external js files that don't fit the node.js format. I am trying to import the json serialize library. How can I do this?

Answer 1

2 answers...

1) the JSON object is built-in to node.js, so you can just call JSON.parse() and JSON.stringify(), there is no need to import external code for this particular case.

2) to import external code, node.js follows the CommonJS module specification and you can use require()

so if you have a file called external.js (in the same directory as the rest of your code):

this.hi = function(x){ console.log("hi " + x); } 

and from node you do:

var foo = require("./external"); foo.hi("there"); 

you will see the output hi there

Answer 2

If you trust the code (I mean, really trust the code) then you can eval it:

eval(require('fs').readFileSync('somefile.js', 'utf8'));  

I wouldn't recommend doing this with remote code (because it could change without your knowledge) but if you have a local copy of something then it should be fine.